On Monday 14 November, the Executive Director of the International Olive Council, Mr Abdellatif Ghedira, received at the IOC headquarters Mr Mahmoud Afifi, Chairperson of the Egyptian Olive Council, together with representatives of the Embassy of Egypt in Madrid.
Mr Afifi provided an overview of the olive sector in his country, its strengths and its weaknesses, and made use of his visit to request technical assistance from the IOC to improve the development of the olive sector in his country. Mr Ghedira indicated that one of the missions of the International Olive Council was to conduct expert missions and provide assistance and he took the opportunity to remind Mr Afifi of the Council’s other missions. He also invited him to contact the IOC Advisory Committee on olive oil and table olives, which was made up of professionals from the sector and was an essential talking partner for the Council of Members and the Executive Secretariat. Its representatives come from all the branches that make up the sector in the member countries – producers, processors, trading partners and consumers. This Committee was created to draw on the opinion of economic stakeholders in the olive world who, through their knowledge of the field, are in a good position to help the Executive Secretariat to identify effective solutions to problems in the sector and to stay in touch with its economic activity.
Together with the Embassy representatives, the discussion mainly centred on the state of progress of the ratification by the Government of Egypt of the new International Agreement on Olive Oil and Table Olive which will enter into force on 1 January 2017.
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